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Juice Ortiz
|last seen = |appearances = 85 episodes (see below) }} Juan Carlos 'Juice' Ortiz was a hacker and intelligence officer for the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club (SAMCRO) on the FX original series Sons of Anarchy. Played by American actor Theo Rossi, Juice makes his debut in the series' premiere episode, , in the series' first season. The first black member of the MC, he displays great technical prowess, but has proven to be somewhat simple minded when it comes to other tasks, often garnering him hazing from the other members. Despite initially serving as a strong ally for the club and its members in earlier seasons, he is later shown to be willing to work against his allies to preserve his spot in the club. This leads to a downwards spiral in Juice's mental state as he questions his decisions and actions, but he can not face being alone and the club is his only family. Playing a recurring role through the series' first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons, his unraveling means he becomes a liability to the club, eventually resulting in the other members not trusting him. After his unfortunate excommunication, Juice met his demise on the episode in the series' seventh, and final, season. Biography Background Juice is of Puerto Rican and African American descent, and is originally from Queens, NY. He is SAMCRO's hacker and keeps their technology up to date. He is also in charge of club surveillance, and manages some of the club's intelligence and communication. At the start he is seen as unreliable by Clay, the club President, and was often given the menial tasks such as driving the transport truck, indicating that he may not have been a full patch for very long before then. He sports a short mohawk and has tribal tattoos on each side of his head. It is unknown exactly how old he is, but he is often treated as one of the younger members of the club, perhaps around Jax and Opie's age, if not younger, roughly in his early 30s. Season 1 Season One began with the Sons of Anarchy finding their weapon storage warehouse being burned down by the Mayans, a rival motorcycle gang. Juice found out that the Mayans own two Heroin factories near Oakland and an industrial storage warehouse in San Leandro. He also found out that Marcus Alvarez is the President of the Mayans' Oakland chapter and is most likely leading all of their Northern Californian charters. This information allowed Clay, Jax, Tig and Chibs to locate where the Mayans were storing their weapons and steal them back. To distract the police from their activities, the burnt down warehouse in particular, Jax, Chibs, Kip 'Half-Sack' Epps (a Prospect in the club) and Juice acquire two dead bodies from the local morgue and set them up in a fake shoot-out. The set-up shooting is made to look like a racist murder involving the Nordics. On the way back to town, they were cut off on the road by a man driving a red muscle car. They later caught up with this man at a petrol station and beat him up. The driver then pulled out a pistol and attempted to shoot Jax, but was wrestled to the ground and then killed by the Pakistani shop keeper who hit him with a fire axe. They then stole the CCTV tapes and fled the scene. When a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent arrived in Charming and began investigating the club, they moved their weapons to Indian Hills, Nevada, where their brother club the Devil's Tribe are based. Tig and Juice were stuck with the task of stealing a truck to transport the guns in. He drugged the guard dogs of the truck yard with crystal meth and then broke in. The drugs only made the dogs more fierce, however, and Tig was pursued aggressively as he made his way to the truck. Juice tried to bond with Tig on the journey to Nevada, but he acted in an incredibly anti-social manner. When they arrived at the Devil's Tribe clubhouse, they were extremely disappointed that they had missed the party. Season 2 While SAMCRO was locked up in county jail due to the botched raid on L.O.A.N. Clay bartered for protection. Of the two tasks that needed to be completed, Juice was volunteered to draw out Dion, an inmate under protective custody, by soliciting sexual favors. Juice was punched in the ribs to fake an injury and sent to the infirmary, Dion followed. Left alone, Juice managed to get away long enough to open the secured door and allow the other inmates to extract revenge. Shortly there after Juice returns to the yard but is stabbed repeatedly in the back with a shiv. It was said that the stabbing missed his internal organs and he will be okay in time. In the episode "The Culling", he was released from the hospital and was seen with everyone else when the club went on lockdown. Season 3 In the fifth episode of the third season, Juice is attempting to sell pharmaceutical drugs SAMCRO received from Piney's dealer friend. When trying to sell some stimulants to an eccentric friend named Chicken, Juice is severely beaten by the Calaveras MC and his cut is stolen. His cut is returned in the episode "The Push" when SAMCRO makes a deal with the Mayans MC. Juice exacts a vengeful beat-down on the leader of the Calaveras MC, who ordered his attack. He went to Belfast to find Jax's son Abel. When SAMCRO goes on a protection run with SAMBEL in an attempt to get close to Jimmy, Jax tells Juice and Happy to keep an eye on O'Neill, SAMBEL Sergent at Arms. When they see that Jimmy's crew locked the Sons in the barn, they attempt to shoot the lock off but the truck holding the guns the Sons are protecting crash through the door and explodes killing members of the True IRA and SAMBEL. The Sons suspect O'Neill and tortures him for information with the help of Sean Casey. After a show down between the Sons and Jimmy's crew Juice watches along with the rest of SAMCRO as Clay kills McGee, SAMBEL President, for betraying the club. When they finally get Abel back they head back to Charming and are now trying to find Salazar to get Tara back. When they find Mexican woman who doesn't speak English, it is revealed that Juice, despite being Hispanic Puerto Rican, doesn't speak a word of Spanish. “I grew up in Queens, I speak more Yiddish than Spanish” he said. Season 4 In the beginning of episode 1, Juice is one of many SAMCRO members released from prison. He also stated that he's getting Opie a 20 day pass to “clear passage”, a colonic spa (the weed shop), of which he is a part owner. Juice later accompanies Chibs, Bobby, and Happy to retrieve guns from the Russian Mob but only to turn on them and kill them, making this the first time he has killed someone during the series for SAMCRO. Unknown to them, one of the people they killed turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. Juice is targeted by AUSA Potter as a potential weak link in the club, as he discover his father is African-American, making Juice half-black instead of fully Puerto Rican as he claimed. Potter makes Roosevelt confront Juice with this fact, pointing out that if this became common knowledge Juice would be expelled from SAMCRO. Because of this fear, Juice begins to work with Roosevelt. Roosevelt tells Juice that he wants a sample of the cocaine that SAMCRO is trafficking so he can begin to build his case against the Real IRA and the Cartel. Potter says that he wants the cartel and the IRA more than the club so he will let the MC survive if juice participates. While SAMCRO and the Mayans guarded some cocaine bricks for Romeo at Elliot's warehouse, Juice takes one of the bricks and hides it in the wooded area nearby so he can later take it to Roosevelt. The next day, the club realizes that it is gone and suspect that prospects Filthy Phil and Ratboy know something. After putting the prospects through several violent tests, Juice starts to feel guilty about the blame being put on the prospects. Juice offers the prospects a chance to put the cocaine brick back and everyone separates to wait and see if the brick is put back. Juice runs out to get the brick of cocaine and starts to bring it back to the warehouse when Miles catches him with it. Miles pulls a gun on Juice and they fight, Miles shoots Juice in the leg and Juice shoots back ultimately killing Miles. Juice then irrationally frames Miles as the thief. Sheriff Roosevelt is instructed by AUSA Potter to meet with Juice to collect the sample but then actually arrest him for possession to further "motivate" him to assist the AUSA's investigation. At first, Roosevelt refuses but is threatened by Potter and ends up arresting Juice. They press him to cooperate telling him that they will arrest the SAMCRO members present at the gun buy but won’t shut down the Sons Of Anarchy completely. As Juice continues to worry about being alone and losing his patch unless he rats and the fact that he has now killed a fellow member, his mental state starts to slip. When Juice returns to the Clubhouse looking apprehensive, Chibs tells Clay that he noticed somethings wrong with Juice. Clay meets with Juice and gives him a "Men of Mayhem" patch and tells Juice that he was impressed with the way he dealt with the Russians and Mayans. Feeling guilty and thinking there is no way out of his predicament, Juice disappears for the remainder of the episode, and later attempts suicide by hanging himself from a tree. He survives the attempt due to the tree branch breaking and saving his life. Juice continues to struggle with his devotion to the club and the predicament he is in with his father's heritage. After suffering another conflict Juice finally admits to Chibs that his father is black, who tells him that it doesn’t matter, as long as his birth certificate said he was Hispanic before being imprisoned once again. (later on in the season when Jax finds out about the leverage he say that he would change the “bi-law” about having no black members) Juice later got exonerated due to the RICO case failing. Season 5 Juice tearfully admits to Clay about his involvement in the RICO case against the club, stealing the brick of coke and framing Miles for it. Later, he admits this and his African-American heritage to Jax, who offers him a pardon in exchange for incriminating evidence against Clay for the Nomad home invasions. Juice agrees and later goes to Clay's apartment looking for the papers that would prove his involvement, but before he could do so Clay arrives. Clay, feeling helpless, says to Juice that he is grateful for the way he is helping him, and asks him to watch his back. Not knowing what Clay has done and how he deserves what’s coming, Juice feels guilt-ridden again. He goes to Jax and asks him what would happen to Clay if he found the documents. Jax admits it would be the same thing that would happen to him if he didn't do what he was told. In "To Thine Own Self", Juice is given a deadline to find the documents. He rummages through Clay's house and manages to find them in an air vent. Jax instructs him to put them back and make sure Clay is not left in the house alone, while he gets the others. He is waiting with Clay, Tig, and Chibs when Bobby calls telling them that Jax has been kidnapped. They leave, but Clay claims he has to take his medication. When Jax returns, he tells the Club he was picked up by Romeo to discuss a new deal allowing the Mayans and Triads to take over muling their cocaine and selling their big guns respectively. Juice, like everyone, votes yes on the deal. After the vote, Juice goes back to Clay's house with Jax, Chibs, and Bobby to find the documents gone. Realizing Clay moved them, he apologizes to Jax, but is merely punched and sent home. When Clay is voted out of SAMCRO, Juice helps him move all his stuff out as he will be leaving Charming. He rewards Juice for all his help by giving him a gun he greatly values. At the season finale, it is shown Juice gave the gun to Jax, who then used it to frame Clay for the murder of Damon Pope. He is shown saddened by Clay's arrest, but relieved that Jax will not out him. Season 6 Juice returns to Charming after being away at the Indian Hills charter with Bobby. He is has to earn his way back into good graces of the Club. Chibs knows he can not get rid of Juice but has to "get right with it". Chibs beats Juice badly at TM, but is seen at the end of the first episode stitching him up. He later helps Jax and Nero track down Darvany, the drug addict mother of a kid who committed a school shooting with one of their KG-9's. They bring her to the cabin, but she grows nervous, grabs a shotgun and attempts to flee and drop them all in it. They bind her and gag her, and Jax has Juice prove his worth by killing her and makeup it look like she overdosed. He gives her the fix and then smothers her, he doesn’t want to kill her but he can’t lose his patch and has to prove he can be trusted. He is seen scrubbing his hands after she’s dead, another thing on his conscience. He later helps Tig and Rat find a group of Nazis who attacked Unser. At the end of the episode, they use their KG-9's to wipe out the entire group of Nazis. When hostilities with the IRA ends with Galen killing Phil and V-Lin and blowing up the clubhouse, Jax sets up a meeting with all West Coast SOA. When they are stopped by corrupt cops, Juice immediately begins insulting them and provokes a fight, that causes him to lose his bike. He later takes a new one from the cop's impounded collection. He is told by Jax he has nothing to prove to them, but Juice believes he does. It is seen again when SAMCRO aids the Irish in freeing Clay, Juice runs over and kills one of the guards. A wounded Bobby suggests to an uneven Juice to go to Diosa and get laid. Despite initial resistance, Juice finally agrees to go, but secretly takes all of Bobby's Oxycontin with him. At Diosa Norte, Juice is over run by guilt and self loathing and takes all of the pills, he passed out and nearly over doses, he doesn’t really seem like he wants to wake up but is saved by Nero and Gemma. Juice has an emotional breakdown and still high he accidentally reveals to Nero that Jax ordered him to murder Darvany. Nero later drops Juice right in it by revealing that he knows what Juice did, to Jax. After Jax makes an agreement with DA Tyne Patterson to turn himself in to save Tara and his sons, he hands leadership of the club over to Bobby and tells Chibs that Juice cannot be trusted. After Gemma disappears, Juice offers to look for her. When saying goodbye, Jax whispers in Juice's ear that he knows that Juice betrayed him, leaving Juice stunned as he couldn’t remember doing so. Juice goes to Jax and Tara's home where he finds Gemma and Roosevelt just moments after Gemma murdered Tara. He shoots and kills Roosevelt before he can call for backup. He is last seen disposing of key evidence from the murders into random dumpsters. Season 7 Ten days after the double homicide of Tara and Eli Roosevelt, Juice remains on the lam from the club as Gemma hides him out at Wendy's apartment. Unser finds out about this when he notices Juices duffel bag and SAMCRO cut in Wendy's closet, but doesn't say anything to the club. Wendy also finds out about this, and helps Unser and Gemma keep Juice off the grid. Juice is eventually recaptured by SAMCRO when he attempts to broker a deal with Marcus Alvarez to offer intel on SAMCRO in exchange for money and passage across the Mexican border. Marcus instead locks him up in a supply closet along with Nero Padilla and gives him over to Jax and SAMCRO once they help out Alvarez with a favor. Jax gives Juice back his cut and Juice fires his gun off at police motorcycles and initiates a high-speed chase in order to be imprisoned at Stockton so that he can get inside and murder Henry Lin on behalf of SAMCRO with Ron Tully aiding him in the murder by sending him a shiv and making Juice his "prison bitch" to keep him close. Juice interrogates Lin and finds out that Charles Barosky was the one responsible for ratting SAMCRO out to the Chinese for monetary purposes. Juice records the confession and murders Lin by stabbing him in the neck while he's chained in the boiler room. Jax meets with Juice at the prison, who tells Jax that Barosky was the rat and confesses everything that happened on the day of Tara's death. Jax is stunned at the revelation of his mother being the killer and promises to make Juice's death quick and painless for his honesty. In "Red Rose", Juice is raped by the remaining members of the Triads while imprisoned at Stockton, who want to use Juice in order to murder Tully. Juice is later offered a chance for protection by Ryu Tom and the remaining incarcerated Triads in exchange for him killing Tully. However, Juice knew Tully's death would impact SAMCRO's relations in prison and he has nothing left to live for anyway, no club, no family, and his spirit is broken. At the break room, Juice confesses that they want him to murder Tully but he instead slips Tully a knife and requests Tully kill him once he finishes his cherry pie. Tully's men then initiate a prison fight as a distraction as Tully tells Juice "you went out good, sweetheart" before stabbing him multiple times in the neck with the knife, killing him. Personality Initially, Juice is shown to be light hearted if not incredibly naive and somewhat dim. During one mission with Tig, Juice gave a guard dog crystal meth believing it would slow the animal down, leading to the dog being more aggressive, biting Tig in the bottom. Despite this, Juice has shown to possess a certain value to SAMCRO, being able to hack into databases for intel. He is also initially well liked by the club until they become aware of his betrayal. After Roosevelt threatens to expose Juice as part African-American to SAMCRO if Juice does not give him intel on SAMCRO (since the rules forbid anyone black from entering the club), Juice displays a more ruthless albeit desperate side, willing to betray the club for his own preservation. Having stolen a key of cocaine to bring to Lincoln Potter as evidence, and having been caught by Eric Miles, Juice ultimately kills Miles and blames him for the theft. Despite having revealed to Chibs that his father is black, Chibs merely shrugs it off (unaware that Juice has betrayed them). He promises not to tell anyone and reassures Juice as long as his birth certificate says he's Hispanic there's no blowback. Ultimately Juice still calls Roosevelt and reveals where the club are during a RICO case. After the case fails due to interference, Juice is safe, his history of his biological father is deleted from the database and his club are non-the-wiser to his misdeeds. When Jax Teller deducts that Juice was Roosevelt's informant, he blackmails Juice to betray Clay Morrow by finding documents implicating him in John Teller's murder. While Juice is unsuccessful in his task, he does manage to set Clay up for the murder of Damon Pope, after giving Jax Clay's gun (the gun had been given to Juice by Clay personally). While excommunicated and on the run from SAMCRO, Juice goes as far as to offer intel on SAMCRO to Marcus Alvarez in exchange to get out of the country for a new I.D. When Juice is accepted back into the group by Jax, Juice becomes incredibly eager to prove his worth. When the crew were pulled over by corrupt cops hoping to steal their bikes, Juice begins to mouth off to one of the officers resulting in his bike being stolen. When SAMCRO are shot at after they heist an escape for Clay, Juice kills the transport guard. When SAMCRO catch Juice, Jax offers to consider keeping him a member if he can find out who ratted them out to the Triads. Juice allows himself to be arrested (after shooting at CHP motorcycles). Inside he is offered protection and help from Aryan shot caller Ron Tully in exchange to be his prison bitch and is raped by Tully constantly. Still hoping to be accepted back into SAMCRO, Juice manages to obtain a confession from Henry Lin on who ratted on SAMCRO, and personally kills Lin himself. Juice's conflict between his conscience and his own preservation prove to be his downfall. When prospects Filthy Phil Russell and Ratboy Skogstrom were blamed for his theft of the cocaine, feeling guilty Juice retrieved the key only to be caught by Eric Miles, ultimately killing him to protect himself. Feeling guilty Juice tried committing suicide, once by hanging himself and another intentionally stepping on an area filled with landmines (both attempts were unsuccessful). After smothering a woman on Jax Teller's orders, Juice ultimately confesses to Nero Padilla after nearly overdosing on Oxycontin he pocketed from Bobby Munson. This lead to Nero confronting Jax about his involvement and ultimately resulted in Juice being excommunicated from SAMCRO. When Jax Teller visited Juice in prison, Jax asked for the truth about Tara's death, telling him what Abel had told him about Gemma Teller Morrow killing Tara and Abel's self harm. Feeling guilty that his lies have damaged people around him and possibly realizing that his lies have caught up with him, Juice tells Jax what really happened. Instead of letting Juice back into SAMCRO, Jax orders his death. Having grown up without a father, Juice sees Clay Morrow as a father figure. This is evident as Juice, in a last minute resolve, tries to warn Clay when Clay is about to be apprehended by the police for the murder of Damon Pope. When Clay is executed, Juice is visibly shaken by his death. Murders Committed *Unnamed Russian - Shot in the chest. ("Out") *Eric Miles - Shot in the face after being discovered stealing drugs. ("With An X") *Darvany Jennings - Suffocated with a pillow. ("One One Six") *Hayes - Run over. ("Aon Rud Persanta") *Eli Roosevelt - Shot in the back. ("A Mother's Work") *Unnamed motel manager - Shot multiple times. ("Some Strange Eruption") *Henry Lin - Stabbed repeatedly in the throat. ("Suits of Woe") Trivia *Juice was called "Juicy" on occasion. *Juice is the seventh main character to die in the series, being the first of three to die in "Red Rose". *Juice appeared in 85 episodes of the series, although IMDB lists it as 90 episodes. *Juice shows signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder while hiding from the club early in Season 7. When Wendy comes home early from rehab, she opens her fridge to find everything neatly arranged and stacked by product (example, two different stacks of cheese slices, one appearing to be American, the other Swiss or Mozzarella), and her previously messy apartment spotless. Possibly OCD with rapid cycling mania, hinted at by his comments that when he is alone the noise in his head is too loud and he gets lost in nothing. *Considering Juice's conversation to himself and reminiscing his life in Queens, Juice may have been from the neighborhoods of Ozone Park or Woodhaven. Gallery Images Trading Cards Autograph Cards Card-A08 S1-3.jpg|A08_S1-3 - Theo Rossi as Juan-Carlos “Juice” Ortiz Card-ATR S6-7.jpg|ATR_S6-7 - Theo Rossi as Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz Appearances Category:Characters Category:Regular characters Category:Recurring characters Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Season 3 Characters Category:Season 4 Characters Category:Season 5 Characters Category:Season 6 Characters Category:Season 7 Characters Category:Deceased Category:SAMCRO Members Category:Sons of Anarchy Members Category:Antagonists Category:Died in Prison Category:Killers